Photography Basics 2 – Shutter Speed

Shutter speed refers to the amount of time that the sensor (or film) is exposed to light. It’s one of the three factors that determine the exposure of a picture (the others are aperture and ISO, more on these in the next posts in the series).

To avoid what’s called camera shake (a misnomer, it’s actually photographer shake), stand with your feet shoulder width apart, tuck your elbows into your body, hold your breath and squeeze, don’t press, the shutter button. 

There’s a useful guide to the lowest shutter speed you can use to avoid camera shake – don’t use a slower speed than the reciprocal of the longest focal length of the lens you’re using. So if that’s 200 mm don’t go lower than 1/200 of a second. Or use a tripod.

Action shots need a faster shutter speed to freeze the subject, as in the footballers and the gannet below.

You can also use shutter speed creatively. See how the different shutter speeds used in the waterfall/trickle  (we could do with more rain), freeze the flow or slow it down.

The final shot was taken late morning. It was a grey, overcast day with a breeze. I decided to use a tungsten white balance to cool the temperature and a neutral density filter to slow the shutter speed (more on these later in the series). It now looks like it was taken in the still, pre dawn. If you’d like to know more about this and other aspects of photography there are more details here

Antony